epson s22

[Paul]

I guess it comes from receiving phone calls after phone calls (less so in recent months), but again earlier this week, from people that bought a printer which doesn't do what they want it to do and find out that it may result in having to buy twice

Lets be honest on this one Martin... Most of those people can not work out tv remote control. And I bet you don't do much to help them out to make their gear working. so they has to buy twice.
I must say 90% people I deal with can not open rar file. when they menage to open rar file they have problem with installing icc profile.
after step by step on how to install icc they have problem with setting up Photoshop or corel for color management. and all this with step by step pdf! So I could easy say most of those people that keep ringing you is not coz they bought rubbish equipment. Is simply coz they can not work with computers and other technical stuff.


Another thing may interest you... I can seriously say half of the profiling Jobs i did it was for artanium or other sawgrass approved Ink. Just people was not happy with colors. Most people can accept their output that standard profile can give and its fair enough as they bloody good profiles. but also there is quite few people that need bit more. and where they can go??? will their ink or equipment supplier help them with this one?? i don't think so....

[bms]

Lets be honest on this one Martin... Most of those people can not work out tv remote control. And I bet you don't do much to help them out to make their gear working. so they has to buy twice.
I must say 90% people I deal with can not open rar file. when they menage to open rar file they have problem with installing icc profile.
after step by step on how to install icc they have problem with setting up Photoshop or corel for color management. and all this with step by step pdf! So I could easy say most of those people that keep ringing you is not coz they bought rubbish equipment. Is simply coz they can not work with computers and other technical stuff.


Another thing may interest you... I can seriously say half of the profiling Jobs i did it was for artanium or other sawgrass approved Ink. Just people was not happy with colors. Most people can accept their output that standard profile can give and its fair enough as they bloody good profiles. but also there is quite few people that need bit more. and where they can go??? will their ink or equipment supplier help them with this one?? i don't think so....

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one them. As I'm sure you're aware Sawgrass continually develop new profiles for different printers for different customer bases and have sublimation inks that provide different results depending if you're aiming at the general mainstream market or want to focus on specialisms (using either Artainium, SubliJetIQ, SubliJetR or Rotech inks). What one profile does for one customer may not be appropriate for another and even screen calibration makes a different to what you see and what you get on a mug, mousemat etc (and how critical your eye is as a photographer versus a lay person).

Not too sure of the analogy of the tv remote, but there is little the mainstream suppliers can help with when it comes to some trying to use import inks with a printer that may/may not have been tested with sublimation inks using refills or a CISS from another source. The myriad of permutations that this generates for potential problems can be significant. I wouldn't say that we get calls because customers can't use computers - this should ground zero knowledge if you are looking to do sublimation work. An analogy might be that you have a driving licence to be able to drive a car, but when you get the car you don't want to have to start building the engine and understanding mechanics to get your sublimation business off the ground. You want it to work and that's what you tend to get by getting supported printers etc.

Now, a mechanic of course could buy a cheaper car and if it didn't work then he/she would know what to do, but having a detailed knowledge of the working of a car (or to come back to sublimation - a detailed working knowledge of custom profiles, CISS problems, etc) shouldn't be a pre-requisite of going into the sublimation printing business.

Now if I've opened up a can of worms here I guess some flack is coming my way pretty soon :rolleyes:

[Paul]

you are right MArtin! excellent example this is about mechanic and cheap car...
but what if someone already bought the cheap car and has no knowledge about doing them up?? we do our best to help those peole... if we not here to help those who dont know, we are may as well put sign on front page "if you bought cheap and dont know how to work it out, go away and buy new"

[JSR]

The question of which printer to use, whether to buy cheap or go "supported", and other basic start-up questions relating to getting the colours right are asked so frequently that I think we all wear our fingers out having the same discussion time and time again.

In an effort to condense the pros and cons of both options into a single explanatory post, I've created this: FAQ: Which Printer? which I hope someone will find useful. Please feel free to link to it when the question is asked in the future.

[Paul]

Fantastic post jonathan. Is well worth to be sticked!

[pisquee]

I guess I am quite technically minded, don't mind researching and learning things, or getting things set up. For me, buying a printer which meets my needs in terms of amount of colours, speed and paper size/handling, and then buying the refillable carts or bulk feed, and then getting someone like Paul to make a profile doesn't seem that taxing. I have bought kit to do profiling myself as a next stage but not had time to learn that stuff yet. It really isn't that hard to buy the printer you want, the inks that come in the quantities you require and price point that matches your budget, and get them profiled. You have three things you need support for - the printer, the CISS/carts, and the inks, it is not so hard to get these from seperate suppliers to get the best deal, and then go to the appropriate supplier for help on their bit of kit. Printers come with manuals, CISS/carts generally come with set-up instructions (if bought from somewhere good also phone support) and Paul certainly has great and clear instructions and is very helpful.
I guess because of sublimation combining technical processes and art/creativity, can attract two distinct camps - one the technical background types, and the second the more art/design/creative types. One camp get on fine with all the techy stuff, and the other just want something that works and is easy for them to be creative with.

[Paul]

Very good said...